Everything's Fine
by Suki-Itami
Summary: "How long have you been married?" "A year." "You remember everyday?" -Rated T for a possibly controversial theme-
_Author's Note: I posted this up on DA a while back and thought that I had posted it up here, but I hadn't. So, enjoy._

"Good morning," Rapunzel yawned as she sat up in her and Eugene's bed. She looked over at her husband, who sprang out of bed like he'd been wide awake for hours. "Hungry?"

He smiled at her. "Starving. We should go into town for breakfast."

Rapunzel smiled and nodded. "Alright." She stood and then immediately groaned when her handmaidens appeared with what appeared to be a rather uncomfortable green dress for her to wear. One thing she hated about being a Princess.

The horrible clothes.

Once she was dressed though, they were immediately running down the stairs to go outside.

"Rapunzel?" The Queen, her mother, walked up to her as she and Eugene tried to leave. "Where are you going?"

"We're going to go eat." She waved at her mother before she could get in another word, and pretended not to notice that she looked very, very concerned.

Whenever they walked through the town, all of the children would swarm to them. Playing with Rapunzel and dancing around Eugene; they were always happy when they were around. (It was amazing that they got to eat at all.)

The adults, though, would whisper and stare. There was something deeply wrong with Rapunzel coming into town with her husband like this, they would say. Particularly when she was feeding her delusions to their children. Soon enough they would believe them as much as she did, a fact that left every adult very worried.

Her parents worried more than any.

Rapunzel laughed as she picked the blue flower out of her short brown hair and twirled it between her thumb and forefinger. She glanced over at Eugene and noticed him giving her that soft smile that never failed to make her heart race. "What?"

He shook his head as his eyes traveled to the crown atop her head. Eugene wanted to pluck it off her head like he used to just to tease her, but he didn't think it was a good time. "Just thinking about how beautiful you are." He smiled widely when his wife beamed with happiness at the simple compliment he gave her every day. He reached for her arm so he could embrace and kiss her, but stopped when her parents, the King and Queen, walked into the entrance room that they were still in.

"Mother," Rapunzel nodded her head to them, "father."

"Rapunzel," the Queen glanced nervously between her daughter and Eugene, "darling, can we speak with you alone?"

"Um, sure." She turned to Eugene with a smile and promised to meet him up in their room. Once he was up the stairs, she faced her parents again. "What's up?" She fumed internally when their eyes kept shooting between her and the stairs that Eugene had already reached the top of. The dress she was in, while beautiful, was very uncomfortable compared to the one-layer dresses Gothel had her wear for eighteen years. She very much wanted to go up to her room and change into a simpler dress.

"He's gone, right?" The King had a slight tremble to his voice, almost as if he were afraid to ask the question.

"You saw him go." She was worried for her father suddenly; he never seemed so oblivious. "What do you want to talk to me about?"

Her parents exchanged a concerned and frightened look before turning their attention back to her. They clearly didn't know how to broach the subject. The Queen began though. "Rapunzel...Eugene...you love him, right?"

The Princess narrowed her eyes on her mother. "Very much so."

"How long have you been married?"

"A year." What was she getting at?

"You remember every day?" The King piped in.

"Of course." Except after sunset each night, but she wouldn't mention that. It would only give them reason to question her further and delay her changing into something that was actually bearable to wear.

When they looked at each other, staring, for a very long time, Rapunzel excused herself to her room. She ran off before they could ask anything else.

She locked herself in the room and then immediately went over to the changing curtain next to her wardrobe. Eugene opened one eye, watching her shadow dance in not-at-all-graceful movements as she jerked off the multi-layer green dress to trade for the one-layer blood red dress that was her favorite.

Once comfortable, Rapunzel threw herself onto the bed next to where Eugene was pretending to nap. He smirked at her. "So, what did they want? Another invitation to extend to their son-in-law for a ball or something stupid like that?"

"You know, you **are** my husband, and you are actually supposed to attend those with me," she pointed out.

"Whatever."

She rolled her eyes and rolled to be laying on her back, staring up at the ceiling with Eugene. "But it wasn't about that."

"Hmm?"

"They asked some weird questions about us. Like if I remembered every day of the past year." She snorted in a way that would be considered rude to most people. "Of course I do!"

Eugene glanced over at her face for a moment as her eyes began to droop; she was always very tired after a certain point in the day. he looked down at their hands, so close to each other, but unable to touch. He hated being this close and so far away. He watched as her eyes fell closed for a only a moment before she yelped and jerked upright in the bed.

"What," she panted and looked over at him; sweat formed on her brow, "what was that?" She had seen a terrible scene where guards dragged Eugene away as her father restrained her.

He sat up and allowed his hand to hover not so far away from her cheek as if he was going to touch her at any moment. "It was the thing that you can't remember."

"What are you talking about Eugene? Why can't I-" She tried to grab his hand to feel him, but her hand passed right through him. She paled. "No..."

Eugene's face fell. "I'm sorry." He followed her as she flew from the room and out of the castle.

Rapunzel ran and ran until she was out of the town and in the forest near to where her tower and what had remained of Gothel was located. Near the entrance to valley was a grave stone she knew she had set up with both of Eugene's names on it.

She hit her knees and bowed her head with tears falling down her face. When she closed her eyes again, she heard Eugene's voice in her head.

 _"They didn't care that I had changed my name and brought back their Lost Princess; I was still the criminal that stole the Princess' crown. I was still Flynn Rider to them-your parents. They had me hanged on our wedding night."_ She saw, again, Eugene being dragged away by the guards, but now she also saw the executioner reading the charges of thievery to him that had followed him as Flynn. Then she saw the first part of all just before she opened her eyes.

"Then-Then how can I see you if you're dead?!" Rapunzel demanded of his disembodied voice.

 _"Every night, you come here, remembering all that happened and making the same deal with the ghosts that live here. You need to stop making the deal,"_ he insisted. _"One day, they won't let you and it'll cost you your life because they'll come to collect instead."_

"But I can't just let you die," she mumbled. She lifted her head and looked around as the ghosts of the place came to life around her in the form of fireflies. She reached out for one. "What do I do to see him again?"

 **SING...**

One of the ghosts told her in a whisper.

Rapunzel looked around one last time at the fireflies and then nodded. She knew it was the healing song they wanted to hear; she still had some of the Golden Flower's power within her, though it wasn't enough to do anything real. _"Flower, gleam and glow; let your power shine. Make the clock reverse; bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt; change the fates' design. Save what has been lost; bring back what once was mine. What once was mine..."_ Her eyes flashed golden as Eugene's image once again appeared to her before she lost consciousness.

...

Rapunzel opened her eyes; she was in her bed, though she couldn't recall when she had fallen asleep. She turned her head to see Eugene laying beside her with a smile on his face. She smiled back at him. "Good morning. Hungry?"


End file.
